My g-grandfather was Thomas David ROBERTS, a civil/railway engineer, born near Llangollen in 1832. He served his articles under Benjamin Piercy, then during the course of his career worked his way down through mid- to south Wales, where he ended up in Newport as Divisional Engineer for GWR.
In February 1875 he successfully applied for the post of Resident Engineer with the Monmouthshire Railway & Canal Company, and this is an extract from his letter of application:
Latterly I have been superintending works of considerable importance for shipping purposes on the River Dee, at Connah's Quay, Chester.The applicant/interview notes about him by someone at the MR&CC also say: "Superintending construction of Works on River Dee for Connah's Quay."
So construction appears to have been involved, but it's not clear if the use of "works" means
a works (a specific building or series of buildings?), maybe to do with the docks; or whether the use of "works" means something like a project, development or improvement, perhaps to do with navigation or somesuch of the Dee. It's just possible it could have been to do with the river in some way, because in his letter he goes on to say:
Last year I was commissioned to proceed to South America to report to the Government of the U. S. of Colombia upon, and suggest plans for, the improvement of the River Magdalena,
so he evidently did that sort of thing too. But I've no idea what he could be referring to on the Dee
Does anyone have knowledge of the history and development of the Dee/docks/facilities at Connah's Quay, who could help at all? Any suggestions about what these "works of considerable importance" would have been at that time? Sounds like it was around 1874, and (as the MR&CC's note is in the present tense) perhaps continued into 1875.
Many thanks!
